I only face them for my clients. They used to be bad on my own property but early on I spread some Milky Spore. That was almost 30 years ago and they haven’t been bad since, but I don’t know it it’s coincidence or not. Maybe at my site it worked because there aren’t so many lawns in my neighborhood so my problem was very local. Maybe.
For my clients I spray them with anything that kills them and only have to spray growing tips so it really requires a tiny amount of poison. Same deal with OFM. I wonder why Cornell never recommends that. Some pests only go after the growing tips. Leaf hoppers and many species of aphids as well.
Hi Alan,
Regarding efficacy of trashcan jb trap, In my larger area I probably get as many jb on my walks with the bucket with water. So if I were to depend on the trash cans during the peak, like now after the rains i would be very disappointed. The problem I think is that once they congregate on plant their pheromone drive… to get to trash cans is diminished, leading to the mass skeletonizing seen on a few trees.
Im with you on drought impact on the bugs. When it rains they will come. Thats what happened here. As soon as soaking rains came, they swarmed. I walked the hazelnuts today and only got an inch in my bucket, after walking 2x yesterday because there were so many. If I wouldnt have they would have stripped a couple dozen trees.
After last walk the fish were a bit burned out on jbs
In my part of Kansas we have Japanese, June, one or more Chaffer, and Green June beetles. I haven’t tried Milky Spore or nematodes, but have been considering it for several years after reading about success people on this forum have had with it.
After reading this article, I think I would need to use both Milky Spore and beneficial nematodes since there are many different problematic species of beetles here. Controlling Grubs: Milky Spore Disease or Beneficial Nematodes?
5 arms on grape plants: every day either at 8am, 2pm, or 7pm, all 3 times, or not at all
3x a day was best, but not much better than simply once at 7pm, and picking lowers the population and stops the positive feedback where damage causes more kairomone attractants and leads to more damage
Another study (Vitullo and Sadof 2007) did not show any benefit but criticisms of the 2007 study were: they only picked 3x/week and at midday (and looked at roses which might be doing something differently pheromone-wise)
doing nothing lets the positive feedback get going and the beetles aggregate if nothing
leaf damage correlates with number of beetles (of course)
Only works for Japanese Beetles, need a dense enough population, and sufficiently warm soil temps for a good long period, and is slow to work (UNH says 4-5 years and 2-4 years per USDA)
Per CO Extension
saying “less than 5% reduction” in the J Beetle population for the East Coast “where long been widespread” but this, if I am reading it correctly, is a natural reduction without manual application
Hb nematodes seem better (kills much much more quickly, hits many more grub species, 50% cheaper, and can have a self sustaining population - 1x application if done right)
ME extension says “as much as 96% effective” for Japanese Beetles
I was under the impression that HB nematodes died with the first frost, and therefore would require an annual reapplication? Or are you referring only to areas that don’t get hard frosts?
Apparently, they can go dormant and they can go vertical deeper into the soil
They just seem very effective and if they can survive a winter (albeit with a smaller population), is that enough to eliminate grubs for the following season? Dont know
I bought milky spores and spread (most of) them last fall. Worst JB year in the past decade+ this year, but then I knew they likely wouldn’t help quite that quickly.
Last fall I spread them via the advised method, a container on the end of a stick with holes drilled in the bottom, tapping out a ~teaspoon worth in a grid pattern. I covered all of my orchard area, yard, etc. I tried to be very thorough…
What was left over I spread today, over the same areas. It’s rained all day and is predicted to continue on through tomorrow evening. I hope the way I decided to spread the rest of them works… Was an experiment.
In a lull in the rain I donned respirator and held a scoop of them in front of my battery powered leaf blower and sent a cloud of them all over the yard and orchard area. Fingers crossed
I was just looking at that product last week because I have a large area to cover. I would prefer something that can be dispensed with a spreader because the “1 tsp every 4 feet” they specify would be incredibly tedious on larger property. Your idea would make it much easier to dispense.
Just found this:
Biocontrol Winsome Fly lays eggs on adult Japanese beetles and uses the beetle to develop which kills the pest beetle. Provided by Whitney Cranshaw
